The Mother's Way

Having a bath routine in place will make the job go by much smoother. Remember that the bathing environment should be calm and warm plus the baby should never be tired or hungry. Also, you should have all needed bathing items ready and at hand so you do not have to leave the baby alone.

There might be some babies who dislike taking a bath. For these children, sponge bathing might be a better choice instead.

Here are steps to properly sponge bathe your baby:

1. To stop your child from waving their arms around, wrap them in a towel and undress them if you prefer.
2. Now its time to wipe the eyes clean. Take a little cotton ball that has been dipped in luke warm water. Wipe the inside of the eye first and work your way towards the outside. Now do the same for the other eye with a fresh clean cotton ball.
3. Use the cotton ball and clean over and behind the baby’s ears. Use fresh clean cotton balls for each ear.
4. Wipe the baby’s face, neck, and under the chin with a cotton ball or wool.
5. With a soft towel pat dry their hands, face, and any damp crease area.
6. Clean up their sleeping area and place them in clean clothes. Having certain bedtime clothing will ease the baby into a routine sleeping pattern.

Hair Cleaning

You don’t need to wash and clean the baby’s hair with shampoo everyday. You can wipe it down with a flannel cloth to remove any accumulated dirt particles.

Nail Clipping

The best manner to cut baby’s nails is to do it when they are asleep. Use scissors or nibble them off. It’s recommended to do this after bath time because the nails are very soft and can be removed with little discomfort for the baby.

Cradle Cap

Most babies show a sign of a yellowish crust on their scalp, which looks similar to dandruff. Babies between the ages of one month and six month will experience this growth. Don’t worry. This is a normal occurrence in almost all children and doesn’t harm the baby in any way. Usually disappears as the child grows but there are actions you can take to clean it up a bit:

Take on tablespoon of olive or almond oil and massage it into the baby’s scalp. Let it set for an hour, making sure the oil does not touch the baby’s eyes or hands, then wash it clean by using a shampoo.

You can also drop a teaspoon of bicarbonate soda into a 600ml of warm water. Apply on the scalp and massage gently for about 5 minutes then shampoo clean. Use this routine about once or twice a week.

Remember to never pick at or scratch to loosen the flakes. The flakes will loosen up if you gently comb his hair.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 2nd, 2008 at 8:45 am and is filed under Helpful Baby Care Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.